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AMOF. REDIYIVUS 
C' OTHER POEMS 



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EDV9VRD 07\AN SHORT 



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1905 
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COHYRKIHT DKPOSIT. 



AMOR REDIVIVUS AND OTHER POEMS 



AMOR REDIVIVUS 
AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 

EDWARD LYMAN SHORT 



ROBERT GRIER COOKE 
NEW YORK. MDCDV. 



Copyright, 1905. by 
ROBERT GRIER COOKE 



LIBR/SRYofCONQReSS 
On«0opy ftecelvfd 

DEC 18 »905 

Coyynjfnt tntry 
CLASS Ol X)U:. No 







Robert Crier Cooke, New York 



THIS little book of poems, 
the product of idle summer 
hours in his youth, it had recently 
been the intention of the Author 
to send forth in the circle of 
his friends, but death withheld 
from him the completion of this 
purpose, which is now fulfilled 
in loving memory by his wife. 



Contents 



AMOR REDIVIVUS 

LOVE AND TIME CAN CURE 

HEARTS DESIRE . 

LA FILLE DE JOIE 



THOUGH THOU WERT FICKLE AS THE 
RESTLESS SEA. STILL SHOULD 1 
LOVE THEE" . 



LOVE'S SADNESS . 

LOVE DESPONDENT 

THE CHANGED WOMAN 

LOVE'S HOPE 

BENEATH EGYPT'S MOON 

L'AMOUR 

CUPID AT TENNIS 



15 
16 
17 
18 



19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
28 



AMOR REDIVIVUS AND OTHER POEMS 



AMOR REDIVIVUS 

There is no winter, but the snow-flake comes 
To hide the scars that naked nature shows, 

Nor lifts 
The spotless veil, until those scars are lost 
In swelling beauties new. 

There's scarce a cooling e*er of love, but peace 
In silence softly clads the chilly heart. 

Until 
Sweet passion's pains revive, then peace will leave 
That heart alone with love. 

St, Moritz, 



[15] 



LOVE AND TIME CAN CURE 

There's many a sea-girt rock, 
Washed by the fickle sea 
Whose sides and hue are servile to 
Each touch of its Master free. 

The crowded clouds give battle fierce, 
With weapons of hail and rain. 
Provoke the sea to hurl its foam, 
* Gainst the rock in the angry main. 

The storm has passed, and left the rock. 
Scathed as *twas ne*er before; 
With sides so worn, and hue so changed, 
Though with stanchness the storm it bore. 

The soft seas woo and lap the rock. 
With kisses they linger and brood; 
They'd wipe away the seams so deep, 
Made in their fearful mood. 

Deep anguish of sorrow may deepen 
Sad thoughts in the stoutest soul. 
But in time as the waves grow weary, 
So painless the years may roll. 

Love's joys divinely can draw 

A tracery over the heart, 

To soften and hide from its owner 

Deep wounds that may cease to smart. 

Bia.rritz* 

[i6] 



HEART^S DESIRE 

Let that love which is bitter, sweet bitter to me, 
Be killed out my heart, let my heart while it beat 
Be the rock that is frosted by winter's cold sea. 
Be a tree standing leafless tho' summer winds greet. 

Let the breeze as it sighs as it moans from the wood 
Be to me as the smile of a babe to its mother. 
Be to me the soft music that wakens love's mood. 
Be to me as the kiss that on pure lips may hover. 

Let the love that is restless, that finds not its home. 
Be buried 'neath ocean that gave to it life ; 
Let the wave as it dies, as it breaks into foam. 
Be the shroud that shall cover at end of its strife. 

Yet within us dwells hope, wintry night has its mom. 
There shall rise such a vision of love for my heart, 
I shall need its dead love, and entreat thee the boon 
To give it back richer life, love's life ne'er to part. 

Mt. Desert. 



[17] 



LA FILLE DE JOIE 

My infant soul, for measureless its years 

To come, a little voice, a tender voice. 

Swayed as it willed ; not fear but gladsome choice 

Enslaved me thus, a captive free from tears. 

'* Thou shalt not ** — and my willing foot would tread 

The hidden path, as needle to its pole. 

Rich womanhood companioned soon my soul. 

The siren voice of hollow pleasure, we alone entranced, 

" Thou shalt not '* — Awhile, O God, and I hear 

Awhile? Alas, awhile was but the verge 

Of desert wild and bare, and as each step 1 make 

Now far across that dismal plain and drear, 

My soul deep-wrapped in funeral serge. 

Thirsty and eager cries, Stilled Voice Awake ! 

P^ris, 



[i8) 



"THOUGH THOU WERT FICKLE 

AS THE RESTLESS SEA, STILL 

SHOULD I LOVE THEE" 

Away in the summer together, 
A face, hardly more, I should say. 
Yet witching enough to draw towards her, 
A look that can ne*er turn away. 

Face to face in the dory together. 
With dimples that come but to go 
As sunbeams that dance on the water, 
Or bubbles in tide's ebb and flow, 

We were out in the moonlight together ; 
Her throat lying bare as the night. 
Like the crest of the breaking breakers. 
Shone soft with its moonlit white. 

Lost is the throat and the dimples, 
Lost is the face once so near. 
Left to the heart lonely throbbings. 
Left to the man, woman's tear. 

Sleepless, my heart in its throbbing 
Is made but more wakeful by thee, 
Dreary its night is now passing. 
Come, richness of morning to me ! 

Quiberon. 

[19] 



LOVE'S SADNESS 

My love is like the sighing wind 
That moans from out some pine tree's wood ; 
Whose voice awakes within my heart 
Deep-sleeping thoughts, a tear-stained brood. 

Odde, 



[20] 



LOVE DESPONDENT 

Keen was thy arrow, of arrows the keenest. 
Lost yet each arrow in which thou believest ; 
Weary thou, Eros, o*er lake and the mountain, 
O droop now thy wings for dry is Love's fountain. 

CsLdenabbiiL. 



21.1 



THE CHANGED WOMAN 

Upon a lonely rocky shore, 

I chanced upon a lute, 

Such dreamy, sweetly languid notes 

Ne*er quivering strings came o*er. 

The harp did seem to have a soul 
Whose tremors wakened mine, 
And the mingling of their music 
Revealed a life divine. 

Upon a busy peopled coast 

I found it soon again, 

A foreign hand had tuned its strings 

Its soul to me was lost. 

Its notes were those of every harp, 
Its soul it hid away 
With beauty wrought upon the shore 
Without response it lay. 

Yet still rd touch each magic string, 
In hope to wake again 
Those thrilling tones within my soul 
One harp alone can bring. 

lona.. 



[22] 



LOVE'S HOPE 

Sleep softly kisses on your pillow soft, 
A bit of hand before which pales 
The dying wave, when glistening foam 
Lies shroud-like, or wind-tossed floats aloft. 

I laid them there to re^, those kisses sweet, 

For all the features of her face 

Were outlets fair of love within. 

That drew my lips her cloud-like hand to greet. 

O tired soul, from woman's love apart! 

O whitest queen, whose king was I! 

O tyrant queen, to martyr love! 

O buoyant soul, then dead and tortured heart. 

Each slumbering kiss my lips would wake again. 

Yet not where homage oft is paid, 

But where deep love her secret joy 

Obtains, where richest voice with sweetest strain. 



[23] 



BENEATH EGYPT'S MOON 

The glare of the noonday lessens, 
Each triumph the sun has won, 
May be lost in the coming darkness, 
Is their like for ever gone? 

Only when moonless the even. 
Only when starless the night. 
For the sky that lies back of a crescent 
Hangs over a world that is light. 

Oh, the heart as it loves its passion. 
Its strife and its leaping in vain. 
May sicken at thought of the future, 
Though a rest midst weariness gain. 

But as often the light of a night 
Hovers o*er a world that is dim. 
So the soft light of a love that is late. 
Steals o'er a heart that beats but for him. 

PhiU. 



[24] 



L'AMOUR 

She, Good-bye ! Our hands have lingered closely twined, 
Till equal warmth bids them and us to part. 

He, Good-bye ! When breaks the dawn of love, 
Why always comes the cloud ? 

She. My day's been strange and left me not at peace, 
The ebbing waves in ocean's bosom lost, 
The dried up beach with many a boat v^de strewn, 
Were mirrored in my hopeful eye this morn ; 
And like a snowy dove perched on a leafless 
Tree, that takes the eye. 

One small white skiff lay couched upon the sand ; 
The sun-warmed sea rose high, and bathed each bow 
In richest flood ; oft times some sturdy arm 
Would rattle out of sight a floating boat. 
High up the white skiff lay, and though each wave 
Tossed it in its arms, as though for joy 
To hold so fair a burden, yet it staid 
As one by one its fellows disappeared. 
The little boat tugged at the weight below, 
Impatient thus to stay. 
Behold the tide is at the flood ; e'en now 
The curved lines of wetted pebbles mark 
That it recedes, and yet the skiff is there. 
I know not why, but weird companionship 
Is here for me. 

He, Sweet love ! why falls the lace-like lid 
To shut me from thine eye ? 

She. A smile breaks o'er my lips and light my heart 

[25] 



To think of love and thee. 

Yet dies the smile on lips unkissed by thine. 
He. The dewy rose bends not more quick than they. 

The proudest head that longs its lips to bury 

In her fragrance soft, 

Nor summer cloud, that peeps above yon round 

Sea-line, is w^hiter than the God-made breast 

That's pure as Eve*s. 
She. Stay, thouVt speaking to a girl, not now 

Imagining to thyself. 

And we are two, nor ever may be one. 
He. Forgive me God (and thou), dwell I in thought 

Upon them other than as works of His 

That may be joy to us. 

I know upon the surface of thy heart 

Love lies yet like some icicle that melts 

Beneath the sun, within there's cold. 
She. Thou wrongest me there. 
He. I do. 

She. Can*st thou not solve my day before I go? 
He. Warm womanhood that*s bathed in love has crept 

Upon thee, till thou*st rich in it. 

Less favored one thou seest borne hence 

From loneliness away to live in love 

Mysterious, and yet the man comes not 

Into the life of whom thou care*st to sink 

Thine own, and be at rest, for like 

The skiff upon the flood, thou waitest on. 

The day is long, the tide 

Of youthful love must ebb. 

[26] 



She. Who owns the skiff? 

He, He whom thou lovest not. 

She, The even's come, and peace with it, 

The peace from natures heart to mine, 

And bids me hope. 

Thee must I leave, more slowly now 

Than e*er before. 
He, I look not where she goes lest I pursue 

The ever-deepening beauty of her angel face, 

The warmth of her sweet presence gone, not strange 

The air is chill. 

The setting sun has carried all my cares 

With it, and one by one soft memories rise 

And shine upon my darkened soul its stars. 

The black sea bears me on, until at last 

One light above all lights of God 

Starts from the evening gloom, and bright the black. 

No longer moonless sea. 

The memories fade, for one obscures them all. 

They but as attendants are, while she, the queen 

Amongst them, moves, and o*er my lonely heart 

Her beams do brood and I am still. 

The stillness of a perfect love. 

Amalfi, 



[27] 



CUPID AT TENNIS 

Fifteen love, and she the service 
Tossed my heart, but she returned it; 
Fifteen all, a woman seeks me. 
Meets me, but alas don't trust her ; 
Thirty love, again she fiees me, 
Leaves me, where*s my heart, IVe lost it. 
Deuce, hurrah! her beauty, mine is 
Now the vantage, by the racket, 
And the net and balls. Til have it. 

my heart so weary batted. 
Warm she takes it, coldly sends it 
Back to me, all torn and wasted. 
Vantage mine, her lips they quiver, 
Mercy now, her eyes are pleading 
Weakly, fondly, now we're even, 
Deuce once more, the mercy's given. 
Then she takes the ball so gently 

1 would fain believe she loves me. 
Vantage hers, again she has me, 
Cruel now she shows no mercy, 
With a white arm and a rosy 
Face all glowing now as victor. 
Game! she cries, and lost forever 
Hand and heart ! — 'tis only summer. 

Vernier Cru 



[28] 



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